The day after the Heighway Pinball team concluded their first appearance at the EAG International trade show in London, they relocated five miles west to The Pipeline bar for the official Full Throttle launch party.

The Pipeline, the venue for the Full Throttle launch party

The day was split in two, with a session for the press and coin-op professionals in the afternoon, followed by the party for the public in the evening. The event had been promoted with flyers at the EAG show and electronically via on-line discussion groups.

Flyer for the launch party

The launch party was held in the basement of The Pipeline, which has a stage and lighting rig for groups to use. This is where the band Redline would be playing in the evening, but before that we had the afternoon session which was designated for the press and those in the coin-op business.

The afternoon session

Three Full Throttle machines were set up - two could be played while the third was a demonstration machine where the underside of the playfield, the flipper modules, the power supply, the control boards and the cabinet could all be examined.

The demonstration machine

The under-playfield cabling and LED boards

The spinning disc motors and PCBs

One of the control and driver boards

The driver board plugs into an interface board which breaks out the connections for the solenoids, LEDs and switches.

One of the interface boards

The two boards plug together

The demonstrator game had three of these driver boards, each with its own interface board, but Andrew Heighway told us the functionality of two of these will be integrated into the large PCBs under the playfield which are currently largely used for feature LEDs.

Heighway Pinball's ball trough design

The wide-body playfield glass doesn't slide out of the game. Instead it is protected inside a metal frame which incorporates the traditional lock bar, and can be lifted up or taken off completely to provide access to the playfield.

The glass frame

Detail of the glass frame

A high score competition was held during the afternoon session with a translites, posters and stickers as prizes.

The afternoon's high score competition

The winner was Chris Poyntz who collected a Full Throttle translite signed by game designer Dave Sanders.

Afternoon winner, Chris Poyntz

Second place, Johan Smaros

Third place, Leif Spångberg

The launch party closed for an hour between 6pm and 7pm to give Redline a chance to do some sound checks and for the room to be cleaned before the doors reopened for the public part of the day.

Entry to the evening session cost £10 which included the band's performance, entry to a second high score competition, and a buffet of hot snacks.

Chicken wings, savoury nibbles and hot wedges were available
throughout the evening

Redline merchandise could be bought

Although the full bar was available upstairs, there was also a bar in the basement to keep guests refreshed.

The event got busier as the evening progressed

Playing in the high score competition

Ad Jonker goes Full Throttle for the win

As the last few entries in the competition were played, the rock band Redline took to the stage to play their set.

Redline provide the music for the Full Throttle game, with their King of the Mountain track being the most famous.

Redline in concert

A.D. on guitar, Kez Taylor on vocals

Redvers on Bass, Steve Petty on guitar & Mark Biddiscombe on drums

Redline played about 10 songs, finishing their set with King of the Mountain before returning for one final encore track.

With the music over it was time to award the prizes for the competition. The winner this time was Ad Jonker who took home a signed Full Throttle back panel as well as a special Japanese import CD of Redline's 2012 Vice album and a Redline T-shirt.

First place, Ad Jonker

Second place, Martin Ayub

Third place, Leif Spångberg

With the prizes awarded, the games were available to play once again as the launch party continued for a little while longer.